Stashbusting Sewalong - January - Covering a chair and a neck pillow

I, tigergirl, commit to using a lot of pieces of stash fabric in 2013. I also commit to not buying any new fabric/patterns/notions except for those that I need immediately to finish current projects until August.

This sewalong is being hosted by Cation Designs & Emily aka EmSewCrazy, for more info. see this post.

I told tigerboy about this - he was puzzled as to why I'd do it (helloooooo, you've seen my sewing room) and then he decided he'd join in (but in his case, it's no more wood).

The theme for this month?
"January: Itty Bits! Sew up those remnants left over from another project, use up some of those tiny scraps that you've been saving...as long as it's less than a yard of fabric, it counts!"
So, with that in mind, I used most of the leftovers from the green meanie Burda dress (that I haven't posted) to make a cover for my sewing room chair - something that I've been meaning to do for a couple of years. The piece I actually used is a skirt piece (either front or back - can't remember) that  I cut out and then realised I hadn't added seam allowances - woops.

Yep, I should be able to make it work ......... just.

Round off the corners before overlocking around it.

Turn over, turn over again and stitch down, leaving a a gap to thread elastic through.

Chair seat covered!

The most time consuming part was threading the elastic through the channel. I have to admit that I ran out of motivation by the time I got to the back rest of the chair. There's very little fabric left now and it'll need to be pieced, possibly even augmented with another fabric - I'll let it percolate in my brain and move on to something more interesting to me.


 Recently I bought a neck pillow for when I'm reading in bed - works perfectly but there's one problem, it doesn't have a removable cover. Itty Bitty Stashbusting to the rescue! Initially I thought I'd use some offcuts from tigerboy's pj's but as I was going through the offcuts box I came across the last little piece of a table runner we bought in Ecuador a few years ago that I'd used to make cusion covers (still haven't put the buttons on them).

The cushion covers sans buttons to close.

There's the still intact table runner (we bought two) in action, as it has been for a couple of years.

The neck cushion, all covered.

I did a pillowcase type opening - not a good idea, getting that cushion in was like trying to stuff a sausage through the eye of a needle.

My original thought that this woven fabric would negate the squishyness of the pillow proved correct, so I will make another cover in the knit. I'll also use a zip opening to counteract that sausage through the eye of a needle effect, in fact, I imagine getting this cover off to wash it will peeve me enough that I'll unpick the end and put a zip in this one too. Anyway, it looks better than I expected.


So, this stashbusting sewalong means that my fabric buying for 2013 is done until August when I'll reassess - not such a big deal as I've already acquired a bit this year:

Spotlight had a 30% off sale

I showed this fabric to tigerboy "Oh wow, that's soooo beautiful!"
"If I made you a shirt with it, would you wear it?"
"Yes, it has all my favourite parrots - buy everything they have hone!"
"I'm not buying it all - are you sure you'll wear it?"
bla bla bla
I actually had to write and ask the seller if they had more than they had listed - he was on tenterhooks for a day until we got the answer.

Of course, with the combined shipping and knowing that US postal rates were increasing significantly at the end of January, it seemed only reasonable to make the order up to 10 yards with fabric I wanted, so I got these as well. 

My stashbusting sewalong has even been tested! Last week I happened to walk past a Lincraft - 50% off everything!!! They even had some gorgeous black cotton lace ........ no, tiger, just walk out right now, there will be other sales ...... and that's what I did (ok, I went and bought a coffee and donut instead but that's still progress!)